Pigeon drop

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pigeon drop is the name of a confidence trick in which a mark or "pigeon" is convinced to give up a sum of money in order to secure the rights to a larger sum of money, or more valuable object. In reality the scammers make off with the money and the mark is left with nothing.

[edit] In popular culture

• An elaborate version of the pigeon drop can be seen in the movie The Sting.
• Details about the pigeon drop are in the movie House of Games.
• The lottery scam in Matchstick Men is a pigeon drop.
• Another version can be seen in an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, in which a criminal fools two tourists into cashing fake chips at a casino after having them leave a deposit with him. When they return, he is gone.
• The Pigeon Drop is described in Neil Gaiman's novel American Gods by Mr. Wednesday as the Fiddle Game.
• In the Travis McGee novel Pale Gray for Guilt, a variation on the pigeon drop plays a key role in the plot.
• It can also be seen on the "Numbers" episode of Showtime's Bullshit!.
• There is a pigeon drop in the "Cheaters" episode of The Golden Girls.
• In the American TV Show Lost, in the episode "The Long Con", confidence man Sawyer demonstrates a pigeon drop with his new accomplice, who is in fact the target of a much larger "romance" con.
• There is a story in the documentary show Unsolved Mysteries that shows a lady who was a victim of the pigeon drop.